The present invention relates to the maintenance and reconditioning of under-roller type wire stranders, and particularly deals with the reconditioning of the associated support roller assemblies.
Historically, under-roller type wire stranders which are employed to manufacture multi-stranded wire cable have required significant amounts of maintenance after having been in operation for relatively short periods of time. The primary maintenance work has been found to result from the failure of the support rollers and their bearings. The support rollers employed in these stranders generally possess an outer circumferential support surface prepared from a synthetic resinous material, generically referred to as phenolic. Due to the fact that the rollers continuously support the rotating strander assembly, the weight of the assembly combines with the frictional force of contact to shorten the useful life of the phenolic. When this type of failure occurs, the machine must be shut down in order to replace the phenolic material on the rollers. Further, as the machine ages, the frequency of breakdown increases geometrically, with the result that the practice which has developed in the industry dictates that the operation of the strander be maintained at a uniform, reduced speed.
The above noted difficulties bear significantly on the profitability of machine utilization and product cost. Naturally, this problem has been approached in the past, however, with no significant success.